ActionAid is a non-profit NGO campaigning against poverty, disease and malnutrition and helping millions of people around the world. Global Cool’s Kelly Gregor talked to ActionAid’s Peter De Vena Franks about ‘Gifts in Action’ and found out that, this Christmas, it really is better to give than to receive.
This Christmas, rather than buying that special someone another DVD or deodorant and shower gel twin pack, the presents you give to your friends and family could influence change and help impoverished communities around the world.
Ethical Christmas presents are gaining in popularity and ActionAid is leading the way, offering a variety of gifts from cocoa tree seedlings to school books, chicken and goat breeding programmes to water pumps. Last year, ActionAid provided fresh water, farming tools, sanitation and food to 13 million people in more than 40 countries – and since launching last Christmas, Gifts in Action has raised £500,000, giving hope to families living in desperate poverty.
By purchasing a Gift in Action, your chosen recipient receives a personalised card in the post or ecard via email, showing how the monetary value of the gift is helping some of the world’s poorest communities.
With Gifts in Action, you could support one child’s education for a whole year for only £30, or provide a family in Mozambique with food and a source of income for £28.
Access to safe and clean sanitation affects 2.6 billion people around the world. In some Vietnamese primary schools, sanitation systems are in such a deplorable condition that children are often kept at home. One toilet can be shared by hundreds of students with no running water in the hot and humid conditions. With Gifts in Action, you can buy a toilet for £75, keeping children safe and allowing them to study in a disease-free environment.
And with climate change threatening to hit the world’s poorest people hardest, Gifts in Action can help a community to establish sustainable farming.
“We are working with communities to make a difference,” says Peter, ActionAid’s Marketing Manager. “Gifts in Action are an economical and direct way in which average people around the world can make substantial differences.”
And Gifts in Action are for life, not just for Christmas. The money raised helps fund projects throughout the year in countries where specific programmes have been established. But hurry - the last delivery for non-ecard gifts is 18th December.
For more on Gifts in Action, click here, and for more on ActionAid, click here.
Congratulations Kelly Gregor, its nice to see your name in print outstide of New Zealand. Love Mum
Comment by Christine Gregor — December 7, 2007 @ 11:39 pm
Very insighful comments and good sentiments
Comment by Theo Gregor — December 8, 2007 @ 1:21 am
wow kelly gregor! back of the net! pretty AND smart…
Comment by Laura McKim — December 10, 2007 @ 1:32 am
please
i need a website in spanish :/
Comment by amii — December 23, 2007 @ 7:11 am
According to a November 2006 UN report entitled “Livestock’s Long Shadow,” animal agriculture produces more greenhouse gas emissions than all the cars, trucks, planes, and all forms of transportation combined. Instead of giving these people animals to breed, we should be providing them with organic vegetables which feed many more people than the resource-intensive and polluting meat. Plant based diets are healthier for humans, the planet and, of course, the animals.
Link to summary of UN report: http://www.wellfedworld.org/globalwarming.htm
Link to complete report: http://www.wellfedworld.org/PDF/UNGlobalWarmingReport.pdf…….
Rina Deych, RN……………..http://www.myspace.com/rinadeych
Comment by Rina Deych — January 11, 2008 @ 5:46 pm